Both trumpet business backgrounds, sustainability chops and at least $100,000 war chests. But they no longer have an unpopular incumbent in Adams as a political foil, and that means they'll have to spend the next several months telling voters who they are, what they've done and what they want for Portland's future.

"You can no longer say, 'I'm not Sam Adams, and that's good enough,'" said Len Bergstein, a local political analyst and lobbyist. "Both of these people are going to have to get people to invest in them."

He added: "The challenge is to give people a reason to care."

And barring entry of another contender, Brady and Hales will have to chase many of the same big-money donors and top-tier endorsements -- and differentiate themselves from each other. There are already signs that fight has started.

Brady's background

Brady, 50, has never held elected office. She boasts instead of helping establish several small projects with "big vision" that grew into local landmarks.

Most visible is New Seasons Market, the chain of 10 stores that launched in 2000. Already, Brady's shorthand identification in news accounts is "co-founder" of New Seasons.

Eileen Brady

Age: 50

Neighborhood: Mount Tabor

Family: Husband, Brian Rohter; four children/stepchildren

Fundraising: $115,000

Big-name endorsement: EMILY’s List

Moved to Portland: 1986

Trivia: Was arrested at 18 during a protest at the Pentagon

The tag line leaves out much of Brady's career and fails to fully define her role at New Seasons, where Brady was never formally employed. But Brady embraces the moniker. "I've been called that for 10 years," she said, noting the label long preceded her candidacy.

Brady moved to Portland at 24 from Olympia, where she attended The Evergreen State College. She spent five years at Nature's Fresh Northwest, the former natural foods store, where she rose from equipment buyer to human resources director.

She parlayed her experience managing people into a seven-year career in high tech. "I got my MBA at the Stan Amy school of business," Brady said, referring to Nature's longtime president, an early mentor.

When the dot-com bubble burst, Brady took her high-tech money and invested in New Seasons. Her husband, Brian Rohter, was a managing partner and, until stepping down in December, CEO. Both remain co-owners with a number of others; Brady and the company declined to say who or how many.

Brady also declined to say how much she invested, saying store leaders prefer confidentiality.

New Seasons' other co-founders declined to talk about Brady's role in detail, saying they want to keep New Seasons out of local politics. But Amy said Brady was "absolutely essential" to the growth of Nature's and that New Seasons started there.

Brady said she sat on the New Seasons launch team, used her human-resources experience to craft an employee health plan and waded into marketing matters. She helped picked the store name, inspired by the shoe company New Balance. And she can still rattle off a sales pitch she wrote for newspaper inserts: "Hurry before it melts." CEO Lisa Sedlar called Brady a "marketing whiz."

Brady also has ties to Ecotrust, the conservation-based economic development group. "Her business background and can-do spirit fit right in," said Astrid Scholz, vice president at Ecotrust, speaking as a former colleague, not as a campaign supporter. Brady also is an investor in and board chairwoman of Celilo Group Media, the company that puts out the coupon-filled Chinook Book. All that adds up to a career focused on Portland organizations, her campaign argues, marking a stark contrast with Hales' business background.

Hales' history

Hales' mayoral pitch follows the switchbacks in his career.

He was a former lobbyist for the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland when he entered Portland City Hall as a city commissioner in 1993. He championed Portland's "streetcar renaissance" in 2001.

Charlie Hales

Age: 55

Neighborhood: Eastmoreland

Family: Wife, Nancy; five children/stepchildren

Fundraising: $100,000

Big-name endorsement: Stacy and Witbeck Inc.

Moved to Portland: 1979

Trivia: Arrived in Oregon in a 1966 Plymouth Valiant

A decade later, city Commissioner Dan Saltzman remembers Hales "beaming" as he walked in a parade along the downtown streetcar route with a stogie in his mouth, like a proud new father.

"He was the reason we have streetcars today," Saltzman said.

Hales, 55, leveraged that success in the private sector, abruptly resigning midterm in 2002 to take a job with HDR Inc., based in Omaha, Neb. The engineering firm wanted to boost its streetcar business, Hales said, "and I wanted to make a difference nationally." Hales' boss at HDR, Steve Beard, declined to talk about Hales' work with the firm, citing company policy.

David Gaspers, a former city planner in Fort Worth, Texas, worked with Hales when Hales led an effort to bring streetcars to the Lone Star State.

"He's a phenomenal communicator," Gaspers said. "It was invaluable to have his past political experience."

Ultimately, however, Hales never had the final say in his HDR projects, which also took him to Cincinnati and Salt Lake City, among many other cities. Last December, for example, the Fort Worth City Council indefinitely delayed its six-mile streetcar loop over funding concerns, a local newspaper reported.

Now Hales is headed in the other direction, using his private work to try to re-enter public office.

One of his biggest campaign contributors is Stacy and Witbeck Inc., a public transportation construction firm that gave Hales $25,000, more than one-quarter of his cash donations.

"This is a marathon," Hales said. "Everybody starts with their family and friends."

When Adams won the mayor's job in 2008, he became the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city. The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund gave Adams $60,000, making the Washington, D.C.-based group Adams' biggest donor.

Both Brady and Hales claim the gay community as an ally. Brady's 28-year-old daughter just became engaged to her girlfriend, and Brady supports marriage for same-sex couples. Hales also supports marriage equality.

"Obviously," said Thomas Wheatley, a spokesman for advocacy group Basic Rights Oregon, "we'll be excited to get to know more about all the candidates' priorities."